


A Manchester Christmas

by PressPack (orphan_account)



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, trust me it's not worth your time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:49:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27944822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/PressPack
Summary: Small snapshots of Christen and Tobin preparing for Christmas in Manchester during Covid-19 times.
Relationships: Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Comments: 17
Kudos: 200
Collections: Preathfics Winter 2020 Collection





	A Manchester Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> This is more disappointing than 2020, so I highly recommend just going to reread one of the other one-shots in this collection. 
> 
> Writing this one-shot also taught me that I'm terrible at thinking of what to write when it comes to Christmas fics, so I'll leave that to all the other wonderful authors in this fandom and just read Christmas fics instead. 
> 
> Also, if you don't want to read this, which I'll 110% understand, but still want to read a Christmas fic, here are some of my favorites from past years :  
> \- It's Funny How Things Never Change in This Old Town by coastalblue  
> \- all I want for Christmas (and my birthday and new year's) is you by somewhereelse  
> \- Slow Hand series by whatname0523  
> \- Fake it till you make it by LittleDanvers  
> \- she keeps me warm & my love, my love, my love by chrvstenpress (do they count as christmas fics? idk but you should read them anyway)
> 
> And just a small warning that there's a tiny part about Christen missing her mom in the Christmas Market scene, so feel free to skip that if it might upset you :)

Tobin lets out a sigh, looking up at the ceiling, before straightening up again. 

“Tier three it is.” She mumbles through another bite of food, looking down at the notification she just got on her phone.

“So we’re coming out of lockdown on Wednesday and then going into tier three?” Christen questions, wondering if she was understanding the rules. 

“Yep.” Tobin confirms with a nod. 

“That sucks.” Christen lets out a deep breath, biting her lip with thought. “I wish our families could come and watch, even though I know that’s not really possible.”

“Having some fans in the stadium again would be nice though.” Tobin shrugs, “It would at least give us a little bit of normality than just playing behind closed doors.” 

She nods with a hum. “I think all tier one and tier two clubs are allowed to have fans back in the stands, so we’ll probably see them at some away games, it just won’t be United fans.” 

“That’ll be good to see, but home fans are always better.” Tobin mentions as she continues scrolling through the link Katie had sent to the team group chat. 

“It’s a start though.” Christen shrugs, hoping that they’ll be able to meet some of the Manchester United fans sooner rather than later. 

“I’m not going to complain, I just feel so lucky that we’re both healthy and that we can play together.” 

Christen agrees right away, thinking back to their times of constantly flying cross country just to see each other for even a weekend. “We really are.” 

They made it all of a week without Tobin complaining about the fact that them coming out of lockdown wasn’t going to change much of anything, seeing as they were still pretty locked down under tier three restrictions and club rules. 

She isn’t ungrateful for being healthy and not by herself in any way, but Tobin is someone who gets fidgety when she’s stuck in the house for too long. 

She likes to go out in the local areas, eat at restaurants instead of having to cook at home, and go for walks where she has the chance to see other people and not just stroll through empty streets. 

And Christen, she’s just sick of trying to talk to a crabby Tobin, just to get short responses. 

“Alright, that’s it!” Christen rolls her eyes, sticking her hand out and waiting for Tobin to take it. “Come on.” 

“What?” Tobin tilts her head with furrowed eyebrows, “Come where.” 

“I’ll tell you in a minute.” She explains, reaching her hand out again. Tobin is about to open her mouth again, but Christen cuts her off before she has a chance to say anything. “Don’t ask any questions, we’re going somewhere.” 

Tobin stands up from their sofa with confusion, taking Christen’s hand just to be dragged to their closet and having Christen throw some warm clothes at her. 

“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing?” Tobin asks for the second time now, making Christen roll her eyes. “Not if you ask again. Just get changed and then I’ll tell you.” 

She doesn’t tell her though, not right away. 

Tobin just follows her to the car, watching as Christen puts a postcode into the navigation system and pulls out of the underground garage of their apartment. 

“Chris, please just tell me where we’re going.” 

“Nope.” Christen shakes her head, “I’m not telling you, it’ll ruin the surprise. You should probably cheer up though.” 

Tobin just lets out a sigh, looking out of the window. She reaches for the volume button, turning the Christmas music on the radio up a little. 

She watches as they pull up into a car park, looking around and seeing a building with Christmas lights all around it. 

Christen gets out of the car without saying a word, a small smile on her face and just waiting for Tobin to get out too. 

As soon as they round the corner, Tobin knows exactly why they’re here. 

“We’re buying a Christmas tree?” Tobin’s eyes go wide with excitement, making Christen giggle. 

“I thought you might need something to cheer you up a little, so why not get our first real Christmas tree together, since we’re actually in the same place long enough to not have a fake one this year.” 

Christen barely finishes her sentence before Tobin’s lips are on hers. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” She beams, linking her arm through Tobin’s. 

Much to her relief, her plan of making Tobin happier seems to be working. Now she’s just hoping that she can keep it this way. 

They find a small stand selling hot chocolate on the side, quickly making their way over and both ordering one. 

“I’m sorry you’ve had to put up with my bad mood for the past few days.” Tobin apologizes once they walk away from the stand, making their way towards the trees. 

“It’s okay.” Christen insists, shaking her head and knowing she wasn’t all that bothered by it. She has plenty of movements where she knows that her attitude is the last thing Tobin wants to be dealing with. 

“It’s not.” Tobin corrects her with a frown, “You shouldn’t have to put up with that.” 

Christen raises her eyebrows at Tobin, nudging her lightly enough to avoid spilling any of her hot chocolate. “I knew what I was getting myself into when I married you.” 

“And you still somehow decided that you want to!” Tobin chuckles, thinking back to them picking up their marriage license a few weeks before they flew out to Manchester. 

Their original plans were to get married next year, after the Olympics and hopefully a victory tour, but with the Olympics being pushed back a year and them moving to another continent, they wanted to tie the knot now and save their actual wedding ceremony and family celebrations for later. 

All of that could wait, but they both knew that they didn’t want to wait to get married anymore. 

Tobin beams as they stroll through the rows of Christmas trees, her almost dragging Christen along with the speed she’s going. 

They’re half way through all of them when Christen suddenly stalls, dragging Tobin back a few steps and pointing to the one in front of her. 

“I think we should get this one!” She announces proudly, “It’s perfect.” 

Tobin tilts her head, failing to hide her surprise of Christen choosing this one. It was probably the last one she thought the younger woman would pick out of all of them. 

“It’s...not straight?” She speaks her thoughts out loud, as if it would make Christen suddenly realize that Tobin has a point and move onto the next. 

Christen chuckles, mumbling into her cup. “Like us.” 

Tobin bursts out laughing at the unexpected comment. These were normally the type of things that Tobin would normally say, just to earn an eye roll and small giggle from Christen.

“I think I’ve spent too much time with you in the past few months.” Christen laughs too now, realizing that Tobin was rubbing off on her more than she expected after over six months of quarantine together, just to now be living together full-time. 

“Alright, so this one?” Tobin goes to confirm, turning to look at Christen again. 

“This one!” She nods with a smile on her face. 

\-------

“Tobs, it’s gonna go through the window in a minute.” Christen hesitantly tells her, watching as Tobin tries to move the tree towards a corner in their apartment. 

She’d offered to help her multiple times in the past ten minutes, but still, Tobin insists that she’s perfectly capable of moving the tree all by herself. 

“No, it won’t.” Tobin shakes her head with a confident voice. “Have you seen these muscles?” She flexes her arms at Christen, letting go of the tree with one hand. 

“Nevermind your arms.” Christen laughs as she catches the tree, “This is actually going to end with a broken window in our apartment and I’m not explaining that one to the landlord, so I’m helping you.” 

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t take long to move it when there’s two of them - something Tobin will deny over and over again later. 

“See, I told you it would look perfect.” Christen steps away from the tree, observing it from across the room as she lifts her hand up to high-five the older woman. 

Tobin pulls out her phone, taking a picture of their Christmas tree. 

Christen drops her head onto Tobin’s shoulder from behind, peeking to see what she’s doing. 

She watches as Tobin writes on the picture for her Instagram story. 

**_Step 1 : buy a tree_ **

**_Step 2 : decorate…_ **

Tobin posts the image, then going back to her story and swiping up to select the unedited picture again. Using the drawing filter, she starts to decorate it with what’s supposed to be tinsel and baubles, adding a yellow star at the top of the tree. 

Christen chuckles at her wife, watching as she also posts the second picture to her story. 

“Oh!” Tobin suddenly snaps up as if she remembered something, moving away from Christen and lying down on the floor in front of their sofa. 

“Chris! Will you take a picture of my sweatpants please? I want to post them before tomorrow.” 

Christen takes the phone out of her hand, moving back a step and holding it up to only get Tobin’s legs into the picture. 

She turns it around, letting Tobin check, who gives her a soft  _ thanks _ .

Christen lies down on the floor next to her, turning onto her side and propping her head up on her elbow. 

“I’m so excited for the last drop. I love the Source Collection so much.” She traces the  _ rooted at the source  _ on the front of Tobin’s hoodie. 

“Me too.” Tobin looks down at the writing, feeling so happy with how the designs for the whole collection have turned out. 

“I’m so proud of you!” Christen announces, leaning down and hugging Tobin tightly, who just melts into the embrace. 

“Pinoe, Kling and I couldn’t do it without our amazing CEO.” Tobin squeezes her a little tighter, leaving a kiss on her temple. “And you know, seeing Christen  _ CEO _ Press really isn’t all that bad.” 

“Oh no?” She chuckles, leaning back and planting a soft kiss on her lips. 

“No, I think it’s pretty bearable for now.” 

“I’m glad to hear it.” Christen pulls Tobin up onto her feet, deciding it’s time to decorate their tree with actual baubles now. 

“As upset as I am that we can’t see our family for Christmas this year, I’m really happy to be here with you.” She tells Tobin as they finish decorating their tree, hanging up the last few baubles before letting Tobin place the star on the top. “It’s kinda special, because it’s our first Christmas where it’s just us two.” 

“Yeah, it is.” Tobin wraps an arm around her, admiring their tree with Christen. “I’m so lucky to spend every day with you.” 

“It’s not long until Christmas now.” Christen points out.

“And hopefully a year that’s going to turn out better than this one.” 

“I think we’ve made the best we could out of this year and whatever’s going to happen from now is going to happen.” She tells her, having thought about this many times. “Let’s just take it day by day.” 

\-------

Tobin wakes up on the morning of Christmas Eve, her head shooting up as soon as she sees white through the small gap in their curtains. 

“Chris! Babe!” Christen hears the familiar voice slowly pulling her out of her sleep, something that she certainly hadn’t planned for today. 

“I’m trying to sleep.” Christen mumbles, rolling over and hiding her face in the pillow. 

“Chris!” Tobin’s voice has even more excitement in it now that she sees Christen is awake. 

“Baby, just go back to sleep.” She attempts to encourage the woman, knowing it’s useless. 

“But babe, it’s snowing!” Tobin announces, almost bouncing up and down on the bed with a happy smile on her face. 

“That means it’s too cold for you to get up.” Christen shuts her eyes tightly, longing for another hour or two of sleep. 

Tobin just hops out of bed, opening the curtains with excitement. Before Christen can complain, Tobin lies back down again next to her, opening her arm for Christen to cuddle into her. 

She shuffles closer, resting her head on her wife’s chest and slowly opening her eyes. 

Christen shivers slightly, tugging the covers higher. “It’s cold.” 

Tobin, knowing better than anyone that Christen doesn’t do cold weather, pulls her in closer. 

“Psst, babe.” Tobin whispers in her ear, making Christen tilt her head to look at Tobin. “It snowed.” 

She smiles now too, looking out at the city covered in white. 

Christen manages to convince Tobin to stay in bed for a little longer, letting her sleep another half an hour before Tobin insists that they have to get up so they can get all their work for re-inc done and then go to the Christmas market later. 

She’s up and in the kitchen within seconds, already making them both a cup of coffee as Christen drags her feet into the room. 

She enters with the Source blanket wrapped around her shoulders. 

“Designing a blanket was a genius idea.” Christen tells Tobin as she walks over to her, feeling warm arms wrap around her. “Seriously...it might be your best idea yet.” 

“I’ve gotta keep my girl warm.” Tobin jokes as she pulls away again. 

Christen winks, a smirk on her face as she reaches for her coffee cup. “Designed to fit me.” 

“Aways.” Tobin grins, and if every re-inc collection so far has been designed with Christen in mind, then that can go unspoken, because Tobin knows that Christen knows. 

\-------

They do make it out to the Christmas market that night, strolling through the streets when it starts snowing again. 

Tobin instantly turns into a little kid all over again, being beyond excited. 

“We should get a little something that we can send to our families.” Tobin suggests, Christen loving the idea right away as she sees all of the options they have for gifts. 

Tobin pulls Christen along to look at one of the huts selling special teas. “We’re practically English now, so we have to get some tea.” 

“I’m not quite sure that’s how it works, Tobs.” Christen shrugs, leaving her to it when she spots the handmade ornaments on the other side. “I’m gonna have a look over there, okay?”

Tobin nods. “Okay, I’ll be over in a minute.” 

By the time Tobin makes her way over to Christen, she sees the younger woman running her fingers over a beautiful ornament with  _ mum  _ on the front of it. 

Tobin frowns, placing her hand on Christen’s lower back, who weakly drops her head down on Tobin’s chest. 

“I miss her, Tobs.” She whispers, running her thumb over the writing once again. 

Tobin pulls her into a hug from the side, Christen still holding onto the ornament. “I know you do.” 

She kisses Christen’s head and doesn’t say anything else, because Christen doesn’t need her to. 

She doesn’t need her to say all these words, because all she needs is Tobin’s arms protecting her. 

Tobin knows how hard it’s been on Christen this year - not having had much of a chance to be around her family and constantly worrying about her dad, even though Tyler lives only a short drive away from him. She knows how hard it’s going to be for Christen to spend Christmas away from them, when it’s only their second Christmas without her mom. 

Last Christmas Tobin had been there. 

She’d supported them and made sure she was there for the whole family. 

It’s what Tobin has done right from the start - right from when Stacy first got diagnosed. 

She was always there to offer a helping hand, but made sure to never overstep. 

She was there to do all the small things, like washing the dishes when she knew the Press family just needed a little bit of time together, and to help with dinner when she knew Stacy couldn’t do it by herself anymore but didn’t want to break Christen’s heart by showing her just how much she was struggling sometimes. 

But most of all, she was  _ always  _ there to hold Christen. To comfort her and make her feel loved when she was hurting. 

She knew she couldn’t tell her that it would all be okay, because deep down she knew that  _ the  _ okay Christen wanted to hear wasn’t how it would turn out in the end, but anything she could do to be there for them, she did. 

Even if that meant taking a small step back and keeping her distance sometimes, when Christen and Tobin both knew that Christen had to struggle by herself for a little bit and find her feet again instead of just relying on someone else to take all of her grief away. 

Still, Tobin’s love and presence was something that she could always feel. 

Whether it was standing against the wall of the hospital room, feeling her heart shatter with tears running down her face, but knowing that Christen, Cody, Tyler and Channing all just needed a moment alone with Stacy and couldn’t have anyone holding them right now, as much as Tobin wanted to. 

She wanted to take all of their pain away, including her own, just like she’s wanted to take Stacy’s pain away for the past couple of years. 

_ Why do the bad things always happen to the best people?  _ Is something that ran through Tobin’s mind on a daily basis during that time. 

It was when Tobin was holding Christen’s hand tightly at the funeral, catching her when Christen’s legs almost gave in, even if Tobin wasn’t doing much better. 

Now though, she takes in the scent of Christen’s hair shampoo, leaving another kiss on her head. 

“We’ll fly out to see your dad again as soon as we can and it’s safe to, okay?” Tobin whispers in her ear, “Or we can try to get him over here for a couple of weeks once it’s safer for him to fly out. I promise we’ll see him again as soon as we can.” 

“And Cindy.” Christen mumbles, knowing Tobin needs her family just as much. She hasn’t seen her family in a long time. Even though Christen knows that Tobin and her family are used to spending more time apart, she knows that Tobin misses them a lot too. 

They were both super upset about having to miss Tobin’s brother’s wedding day, just like they’ll now be missing the birth of Perry’s third child. It breaks Christen’s heart to think they won’t get to meet their niece or nephew for months. 

They pull away from the hug again and Christen turns to Tobin, locking eyes with her. 

Tobin brushes a snowflake out of Christen’s curls, leaving a soft kiss on her lips and turning towards the hut again. 

She looks down at the ornament that’s now lying back on the table, seeing that it’s yellow - Stacy’s favorite color. 

She picks it up, taking a step towards the woman on the other side of the table and requesting to purchase it. 

When she turns back around, she sees Christen standing a few steps away, a tear staining her cheek from the cold. 

“I think you should hang this one on our tree tonight, if you want to.” Tobin tells her softly, a teary smile making its way onto Christen’s face. 

“I-” She chokes on her own words, taking the small paper bag that Tobin is holding in front of her. “Thank you...I love you.” 

Tobin brushes Christen’s tears away, leaving a kiss on her cheek and linking her fingers through Christen’s, moving to find some hot drinks for them to have. 

\-------

As soon as they get in their apartment that night, Christen shivers, rubbing her arms to warm herself up. “Right, let’s get that heating on and turn the radiators up to five.” 

Tobin can’t help but laugh at Christen running around the apartment, trying to find all of their radiators and turning them all the way up. 

“Of course.” She mumbles, before hanging her coat up and taking her beanie off. “I’m going to take a warm shower.”

Christen passes her all of the sudden, pretending to run down the hallway. “I’m going to beat you to it.” 

Tobin holds her back, grabbing her waist and pulling her. 

“Let me go!” Christen squirms, getting out of Tobin’s hold and undressing herself before Tobin even makes it into their bedroom. 

“You know this shower can fit two of us, right?” Tobin chuckles, also stepping under the hot water a short moment later. 

“I still beat you.” She sticks her tongue out, poking fun at Tobin’s childish mood earlier.

“So competitive.” 

“I missed soccer, okay!” Christen shrugs, as if that should have been clear. 

“I noticed.” Tobin laughs.

“I do need to pull myself together though.” Christen jokes, “Otherwise you’ll end up as top scorer of the season, and I’ll end up as the one with the most yellow cards.” 

Tobin bites her tongue, “The latter is most likely to happen.” 

“Hey!” Christen’s jaw drops, her swatting Tobin’s shoulder right away. “Unlike you mocking me and my yellow cards every time I get one, which has only been twice may I mention-” 

Tobin cuts her off before Christen can continue. “So far…” 

“You know what, I don’t know why I put up with you.” Christen shakes her head, “What I was going to sit is that unlike you mocking me for my yellow cards - once again may I mention! - I’m proud of my superstarr wife and all of the goals and assists she’s getting.” 

Tobin smiles as Christen wraps her arms around her neck. “I feel like you’ve finally found yourself in the game again, after your injury, and I know that you had it a bit tough at the stat of the year, so I love getting to watch you play like this again and it makes me so happy to see you happy.” 

“I’m super proud of you too.” Tobin looks into her favorite green eyes. 

They dress into their warm re-inc sweatpants and sweatshirts right after coming out of the shower, cuddling up on the sofa and deciding to watch Christmas movies all night. 

Christen’s phone vibrates with a notification half-way through  _ The Grinch,  _ when she sees it’s a text message from Jackie on the group chat, wishing them all a Merry Christmas. 

She turns to an unknowing Tobin with a smile, realizing they must have lost track of time and it ended up way later than they expected. 

“Baby,” Christen nudges her, diverting Tobin’s focus from the movie to her. “Merry Christmas!” 

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, this is the part where I change my username and hide out forever so we can ignore this was ever posted, right?


End file.
